Travels Over Feeling

Last Friday, 7th of February, in the heart of Paris, next to the Louvre, Centre Pompidou and Les Halles, the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection presented the second of two events celebrating the pioneering work of American musician and composer Arthur Russell, raising expectations and excitement for Jafa’s Corps et âmes higher than ever. As we stepped into the building recently transformed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, we were met with a trailer for Jafa’s 2016 film Love is the Message, the Message is Death, showcasing a montage of Black American culture icons such as Michael Jordan, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X alternating with anonymous figures to create a powerful associative sense of unity and a commentary on the “common destiny” that African Americans and the United States face.

Before heading downstairs to the auditorium to catch the Speakers Corner Quartet and friends perform, we needed to take a minute to take in the space, specifically the foyer itself. The Parisian building once stood as the stock exchange before housing the Pinault family’s art collection and is a nonpareil in creating a mesmerising contrast of the two ends of architecture, from traditional to brutalism. This living dialogue between the new and the old further amplified Jafa’s collages featured in the trailer shown within the space, as his contrasting sequences also welcome the possibility of multiplicity and disquiet, refusing a singular meaning.

In the auditorium, we were greeted with an instrument-clad stage where, shortly after, the Speakers Corner Quartet walked out. Accompanied by the smell of an incense stick in the air and blue light projected over the stage, they set in motion what would be an unforgettable sensorial experience. The British group composed of Kwake (drums), Peter Benie (bass), Biscuit (flute), and Raven Bush (violin) are known for blending jazz, soul, and experimental music with introspective textures and were the perfect choice to pay homage to Arthur Russell, an artist resistant to the confines and idea of genre and defiant to classification.

Coby Sey, Loraine James, Lucinda Chua, Oko Ebombo, Sarah Tandy, Sébastien Forrester, Tawiah, and Tirzah all joined the quartet and infused their own energies and styles into the tribute concert. Going smoothly and effortlessly from more acoustic performances to electronic sounds and disco influences served perfectly to bring attention to how nuanced Arthur Russell’s kaleidoscopic universe truly is. After all, his legendary catalogue goes from solitary songs born in the plains of Iowa to the inner mantras of Allen Ginsberg and the emancipated disco dancefloors of New York. The audience were fully immersed and captivated all throughout, whether that be by the disco ball lighting up the auditorium, the strong and yet soothing powerful voices of each featured artist, strong percussion and ethereal vibe or simply all of the above.

Each aspect of Russell’s wide canon straddling country, disco and experimental composition was touched by the Quartet and guest performers alike, keeping the audience at the edge of their seats for the duration of the performers, not knowing exactly what to expect. As the entire auditorium erupted into a standing ovation and shifted into properly partying and dancing along, accompanied by a hypnotic display of lights and cathartic groovy instrumentals, the artists made their way into the foyer outside of the auditorium, encouraging the audience to follow and acting like shepherds herding flocks of animated sheep eager to groove to disco staples.

The second part of the programme associated with Jafa’s Corps et âmes began as legendary DJ Victor Rosado took hold of the room and inaugurated the start of an euphoric club night. The ghosts of Paradise Garage, the iconic 1980s New York downtown nightclub, resurfaced by virtue of Rosado, one of the original DJs of the New York club. Paradise Garage and what it encompassed have also always been a major source of inspiration for Jafa’s work, as seen in his 2018 video work The White Album, where he took its structure from DJ sets and nonstop remixes with raw acapella interludes by another resident DJ of the club, Larry Levan. Arthur Russell himself also frequented Paradise Garage, which manifested in his music and, in a full-circle way, in the homage we had seen prior to the DJ sets.

DJ’ing with LPs and shooting out heart-bumping beats in an almost ritualistic way, where a large crowd gathered in front of him to dance their way through his sermon consisting of disco and house, with elements of pop, new wave, funk, and hip-hop, Rosado transported us all the way back to the late 70s. As time flew by and his hypnotic set came to an end, Lil Mofo, the Japanese DJ, took up the reins to share her carefully curated selections and epically conclude the night. Lil Mofo’s dub and reggae sounds with small hints of techno and electronic groovy sounds characterised her set, which she imagined as an homage to Paradise Garage, concluding the night on a euphoric note. What better way to honour such innovative artists?

Both Arthur Jafa and Russell have left behind lasting legacies by pushing artistic boundaries and redefining their fields, and to have them honoured and have the overlap between their worlds be linked through such a carefully curated programme was astounding and made us look forward to the upcoming Corps et âmes exhibition—which you can get your tickets for here. As a filmmaker and multifaceted artist, Arthur Jafa reshaped how the lack of identity and culture are portrayed in contemporary art, using powerful imagery to address social issues, and Arthur blended genres like disco and classical, creating a unique sound that influenced countless artists, Jafa being one of them. The programme associated with the upcoming exhibition definitely set the stage for it; with such exceptional concerts and curated music outings, we might have to start booking our return tickets to Paris already.